Thursday, December 18, 2008

busy busy busy


Sorry that I haven't blogged lately. It's been very busy. Rocco is up more and requires more entertainment throughout the day. He takes 2 short naps daily unless we go on a long walk in which case he gets even more sleep. In general, it has been very hard finding time to do anything until he goes to bed at 7PM.

So, things have also been very stressful because Rocco was experiencing food allergies. About 2 weeks ago he began waking me up every couple of hours at night and he was straining to poop (crying and so on). Then I noticed that he was pooping out little specks of blood. I was very concerned (actually I freaked out) and called his doctor who said this isn't all that uncommon and that unless I notice dark red jelly like blood and a fever there is nothing to worry about. He said that as long as he is eating and pooping regularly he is fine. Of course I was still very worried because I knew he was uncomfortable so I called my acupuncturist who works closely with infants around nutrition. She told me the same as the doctor - not to worry that the red blood specks because they aren't that uncommon. She recommended that I start removing foods from my diet. So I gave up dairy and upped my protein intake and within 24 hours there was major improvement. Within 48 hours he started eating a lot more (and trust me he was already eating well, however now it's a marathon fest) and he hasn't had anymore pooping issues. Feeling confident, I broke down and ate some dairy a couple of days ago and the red flakes came back. So now I'm just off all dairy. It's hard since I love cheese. I have to read all ingredients to make sure nothing contains dairy and whey. In the process I'm slowly trying to also eliminate soy since that is known to also cause allergy problems with babies.

I have a big block of manchego cheese in the frig and I can't eat it. It just stares at me taunting me with its cheesy goodness. In solidarity Daniel is also not eating dairy which helps. I purchased almond milk to add to my morning coffee. I actually took coffee out at the same time I gave up dairy but I brought it back into my life yesterday and Rocco isn't having any problems with my 1 cup in the morning. The almond milk isn't bad - it'll take some getting used to which I guess is what parenting is all about.

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